Four members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen filed legislation Tuesday to appropriate $232.5 million in Rams settlement money to parts of north St. Louis, southeast St. Louis and downtown.
The bill, sponsored by Ward 13 Alderwoman Pamela Boyd, proposes to invest $107.5 million for infrastructure projects in disinvested neighborhoods and downtown, $85 million for housing improvements and $15 million for small business support. It’s a majority of the $280 million the city received from the settlement.
Boyd emphasized the need for investment now, especially in north St. Louis, when discussing the legislation with reporters on Tuesday.
“We have needs that have gone unmet for decades, and we can no longer sit back and talk about saving this money for a rainy day; in my community, it’s been pouring for decades,” she said. “Our citizens have heard for far too long about the promises of investment on its way. We have been hearing the same empty promise for seven decades.”
The legislation would dedicate its money to four areas: infrastructure projects, the rehabilitation of “high-impact areas and buildings,” housing improvement and small business and commercial corridors. Around $100 million of it would be earmarked for downtown.
“We were awarded these funds because of the loss of the Rams,” said Ward 8 alderwoman Cara Spencer, a co-sponsor. “It’s imperative that we invest these funds in a way that can be transformative and provide a path to having a revenue stream for our city.”
Spencer, who is running for mayor next year, emphasized that the city won’t be successful without investments in downtown, which she currently represents, and north city.
Ward 11 Alderwoman Laura Keys and Ward 2 Alderman Tom Oldenburg are also co-sponsors of the legislation, which will be introduced before the whole Board of Aldermen on Nov. 15. Boyd also noted business groups, like Greater St. Louis Inc., have also offered their support for the legislation.
The proposition to use the money from the Rams settlement for downtown and historic disinvested neighborhoods in north and south city was the subject of a Committee of the Whole meeting by the Board of Aldermen last month. During that, a handful of Alders expressed skepticism about using the funds in this manner at this time, citing a need to wait while the city contends with the rest of the $500 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, which must be spent by the end of 2026.
Boyd pushed back on that view and expects she will convince her colleagues to spend the Rams money now.
“How long does north [St. Louis] and southeast city have to wait?” she said. “Why are we always on the back burner? That’s not okay with me when I got people running out of my community because they don’t feel they can get services to clean up their community.”
Unlike the ARPA funding, the Rams settlement money has no such timeframe to be spent, and the city has dedicated time and resources to gathering responses from city residents on how it should be spent.
Keys, whose ward encompasses communities around North Grand Bouldevard and Fairground Park, said the residents she represents want action.
“They’re sick of surveys and they’re ready to see some work,” she said. “We are ready right now, the hope that our communities will finally and financially receive the basic investments in streets, housing infrastructure that many people across other areas of our city simply take for granted.”
But it wasn’t immediately clear how the bill would direct the city to manage such programs. Spencer argued the bill provides a foundational framework, like what the board did with ARPA money.
“The initial tranche of how we allocated the ARPA funds was done in a very similar [way],” she said. “This is a directional bill that really provides a direction path for how to invest these funds. The specifics will be worked out.”
She emphasized that the St. Louis Development Corporation, which has come under scrutiny for how it’s rolled out ARPA grants in north St. Louis, would not manage any of the funding.
The bill would still have to win approval from the city’s Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which deals with matters involving appropriating funds.
